Christian Barnard

Christian Barnardís place in medial history is based on
the fact that Barnard performed the first open heart transplant in history. In
2002 such operations are common but in the late 1960ís operations on the heart
were rarely performed because of the risk of death and heart transplants were
unheard of. Christian Barnard was a pioneer of organ transplants and he must be
placed alongside the likes of Pasteur, Lister,
Koch, Fleming,
Florey and Jenner
in any list of medical giants.

Christian Barnard was born in South Africa in 1922. He
worked as a surgeon at the Groote Schuur hospital in Cape Town. After further
training in America, he became a leading heart surgeon.

Barnard studied heart surgery at the University of
Minnesota in the US and returned to South Africa to set up a cardiac unit in
Cape Town. In December 1967 he transplanted the heart of a road accident victim into a 59
year old man, Louis Washkansky. This was the first operation of its kind and
made Barnard a household name worldwide - fame that took him by surprise. Asked
to describe his feelings after the Washkansky transplant, Barnard said:

"Not
very much. It was a natural progression of open heart surgery. We did
not think it was a great event and there was no special feeling. I was
happy when I saw the heart beating again. We did not stand up or cheer
or something like that. I didn't even inform the hospital authorities
that I was going to do the operation."

Unfortunately, Washkansky died 18 days later from pneumonia. The drugs used to
prevent the body rejecting the new heart adversely weakened his resistance to
infection.

One of Barnard's patients lived for over a year and a half
after surgery, but patients needed drugs to prevent the body rejecting the donor
heart. These left them open to infection and many died, just like Louis
Washkansky. After a while, all heart operations stopped because the risk of
failure was considered too high.

In 1974 a researcher working in Norway discovered a new
drug called cyclosporin. This drug helped to overcome the body's rejection of
the donor organs and protected the patient against infection. Subsequent heart
transplants were more successful and since the late 1980s, the majority of
patients have survived for more than two years after surgery.

Barnard had demonstrated that heart transplants were
possible. Even though many of his patients died soon after their operation, he
had taken the first steps into a new form of surgery which is now routine in
medical practice. In 1974, Christian Barnard carried out the first double heart
transplant. He ended his career in surgery because of the impact of
arthritis.

Barnard died in 2001.

What
is your biggest achievement in life?

"It's difficult to say. If you ask
me what I would like to be remembered for, I would not say the
transplants but the surgery. I have performed on children with abnormal
hearts. It is much more difficult than transplantation and much more
satisfying. With the surgical facilities we give a child a chance to
lead a normal life."